A conventional method of acquiring image information of a remote location is to setup a camera on the spot and transfer the image information taken via a wired or a wireless scheme. The method of transferring the image information taken via the wired or the wireless scheme to acquire the image information of the remote location is referred to as “a remote technique”, “a monitoring technique”, “an Internet technique”, or “a long-time monitoring technique” (hereafter, “autonomous operation control system”, generically in this specification).
Specifically, as an image information transmitting method by the autonomous operation control system, a method of transferring images at intervals of constant cycles from a camera (“a monitoring camera method or an ftp method”), a method of allowing a user (an operator) to operate a photographic camera at a remote location, and transmitting a photographed image (“a remote control method or a web camera method”), a crime prevention apparatus-based method of transmitting a photographed image by mounting a computer on a photographic camera side on the site, making a determination based on information from a sensor and the like on the site, and performing automatic photographing, and the like have been conventionally adopted. Furthermore, as the autonomous operation control system of this type, a monitoring system using photographic images photographed by a monitoring camera is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-078921.
However, the technique based on the autonomous operation control system using the image information acquired by the camera as explained above has following disadvantages. As the conventional photographic camera, an ordinary monitoring camera is used. Since this monitoring camera is constituted by adding only a microphone or a proximity sensor to a function of the monitoring camera, the camera basically functions merely as the monitoring camera.
Some monitoring cameras additionally include a temperature sensor that measures a temperature or an external sensor having another function. However, if a monitoring target (the photographic subject) is, for example, a weather observation apparatus, the camera is disadvantageously insufficient in the number of elements that the camera can measure and in measurement accuracy.
With a control method (photographing method) based on the conventional autonomous operation control system, it is difficult to appropriately grasp the photographic subject and, therefore, disadvantageously difficult to realize automation. In addition, if the operator or the like is responsible for all operations relating to photographing and the number of photographic subjects and the number of locations at which the photographic cameras are disposed increase, a heavy burden is disadvantageously cast on the operator.
Furthermore, to prevent the autonomous operation control system from malfunctioning, it is necessary that a monitoring apparatus that constitutes the photographic camera that actually perform photographing has an autonomous control function. To do so, it is necessary to incorporate a complicated and large-capacity program into firmware, and to also incorporate high-specification hardware necessary to execute the program into the firmware. This results in a disadvantageous and considerable increase in a cost of the monitoring apparatus. In addition, the more complicated the program is, the more so-called program bugs occur, resulting in lots of operations and labor required to perform debugging.
Moreover, if photographing is constantly continued so as to prevent photographic defect in a weather condition such as rain, unnecessary image information is then increased, and a cost of an image storage apparatus that constitutes the autonomous operation control system and a cost of a communication line are disadvantageously incurred. Furthermore, although it is necessary to dispose photographic cameras or monitoring cameras for photographing the photographic subject, it is disadvantageously difficult to dispose many monitoring cameras in a wide area such as a farm land in terms of cost. In addition, it is considerably difficult to secure communication lines following installation of the monitoring cameras in terms of both cost and technique.
The present invention has been achieved in order to solve the conventional problems. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an autonomous operation control system that can photograph image information or the like using a monitoring apparatus, and that can operate photographing of the image information or the like performed by the monitoring apparatus and acquire the image information from another remote location.